The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh announced Tuesday it is offering eligible faculty and staff a voluntary retirement buyout with a one-time payment equal to 50% of an employee's annual base salary.

UW-Oshkosh becomes the third campus within the UW System to offer buyouts in an effort to reduce its workforce in the face of state budget cuts. UW-Eau Claire was the first, followed last week by UW-Superior.

UW-Oshkosh expects about 100 employees would be eligible. It has set a goal of reducing its workforce by 80 within the next three years.(39)

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Wisconsin: Most foul fans?

Jon Wilner writes for the San Jose Mercury News and is also a voter in the AP college football poll.

Wilner discusses his ballot in a weekly chat, but not before he writes a little introductory piece. This week Wilner discusses how he gets hate mail from fans, usually based on how can he rank their team so low on his ballot. He gives an example of Rutgers fans this year.

But near the end, Wilner writes, "By far, the most foul fans I’ve encountered over the years (via email or the Hotline) are Wisconsin fans. I’m sure most of them are very pleasant people, but the ones I heard from last fall were downright nasty."

In his Q&A session, Wilner is asked how he could drop USC two spots in his ballot after a bye week, but not Wisconsin, which barely won at UNLV. Wilner's response: "I tend to give teams a break for narrow road wins, especially at this point in the season if they already have a quality win under their belt. And as of now — this could change, of course — Wisconsin’s win over Washington State looks pretty good. If the Badgers struggle at home this week against The Citadel, you can be sure I’ll consider that."